What characterizes hospital departments with low nurse turnover? A regional cross-sectional study

Background: A high nurse turnover rate is known to lower the quality of nursing care and increase hospital costs. It is therefore important to identify characteristics that may decrease and prevent a high nurse turnover rate. Objective: To determine the characteristics of the units within surgery, medicine, acute care and psychiatry with the lowest nurse turnover in Region Zealand in Denmark, related to organizational characteristics in turnover on staffing, staff composition and patient safety. Design/Methods: A cross-sectional study based on existing data from multiple data registers. Results: The included units with the lowest nurse turnover shows a not transparent tendency to have a higher proportion of nurses in the nursing care group per. patient day, nurses with higher average age and seniority, lower sick leave and less overtime. Furthermore, there is a tendency to lower rates of re-admissions, lower 30-days mortality, shorter admissions and lower usage of healthcare services. Conclusions: The results indicate a complex interaction between nurse turnover, staffing and staff composition and patient safety that is not definitively clarified within this study. A deeper understanding of this interaction including focus on physical work environment is needed to reduce nurse turnover.